Tottenham Hotspur stunned Manchester City with a 1-0 victory on Sunday afternoon, with defender Japhet Tanganga playing a starring role.
Few were giving Tottenham much of a chance in the first competitive game of the Nuno Espirito Santo era.
Premier League champions City were title favourites once again and unleashed new signing Jack Grealish in an attack-minded team.
As for Tottenham, Harry Kane wasn’t in the squad at all and all three of their new signings were on the bench, meaning Nuno had a real battle on his hands to get a result.
He got a superb win though, with Son Heung-min’s second half strike beating Ederson and handing Tottenham a 1-0 victory.
Everybody played their part, and Son took the headlines with the winning goal, but defender Tanganga deserves huge praise.
The 22-year-old was deployed at right back as he looks to make an impact this term, and City attempted to really challenge him by having both Raheem Sterling and Grealish operate around Tanganga.
It didn’t work.
Tanganga shackled Sterling, and yes he committed a few fouls, but he barely gave City a glimmer of hope down his side in an outstanding defensive showing.
Gary Neville absolutely loved what he saw, telling Sky Sports (15/08, 5:59pm) that he feels Tanganga will now take some shifting from the right back role having been so good against Sterling and Grealish.
“He’s been really good, from the first minute,” said Neville. “Up against Sterling and Grealish, he had a tough start to the game down that side but stuck to his task.”
“I think it really suits him today, with the fact that it’s more of a defensive role for large parts of the game, when Spurs have more of the ball, it might be that one of the others is suited, but he’ll take some shifting,” he added.
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